Smart Home

Do you want to make a difference?

Imagine that you manufacture climate control devices. Research shows there are 100 million broadband homes today — and exponential increases are projected – so you connect your system to the Internet to improve service offerings with remote control, automation and security features.

At the same time, you reduce your expenses by remotely servicing and upgrading your existing customer base. Your network relationships with those customers increases customer contact, improving retention and opening future sales opportunities.

There is a solid business case for connecting your device to the Internet, but how can device manufacturers realize this vision today? Adding a modem would not work. Using the customer’s PC would work, but carries high technical support costs from inherent PC network idiosyncrasies. The current infrastructure isn’t ready to connect consumer products to the Internet cost-effectively: networked device systems need to be managed to achieve these benefits.

The OSGi Service Platform specifications enable a standardized service delivery and execution environment that enables any manufacturer, service provider or operator to develop and deploy a highly flexible service platform for any device and allows any developer to write application software for it. The OSGi Service Platform achieves the vision of the connected device, reduces end-to-end costs, and enables the same service to run seamlessly on a variety devices inside and outside of the home environment.

OSGi Service Platform specifications define a managed environment in which many applications can execute and cooperate. This environment is similar to an operating system like Linux or Windows. The difference is that the OSGi Service Platform was specifically designed to be:

Secure, so you can trust it with your valuable data and programs

Reliable, so there are no unnecessary support calls

Remotely manageable, so that the platform can be remotely serviced and maintained by the provider to increase user satisfaction

Universal, so it is deployable on a wide range of hardware and operating systems. Since Java technology provides a virtual machine environment, it means that the OSGi Service Platform can run on almost any operating system or processor

Evolvable, so that you can easily provide total lifecycle management for your services

Resources

Use Cases

Alcatel-Lucent – The Alcatel-Lucent Cellpipe Alcatel-Lucent’s approach combines broadband connectivity and processing/storage capacity into a single CellPipe Residential Gateway that supports the industry’s first Residential Gateway Application Module (RGAM). The RGAM is a USB dongle functioning as a mini-PC for processing and storage, including customer experience management software and applications. CellPipe runs ProSyst mBS Smart Home OSGi Service Platform.

AlertMe – A great example of ‘The Internet of Things’, part of AlertMe exists ‘in the cloud’ and part in the home, creating a secure Home Area Network (HAN) that connects the user to their home, energy and devices, giving real-time visibility and control from anywhere at any time. AlertMe not only brings the benefits of the Smart Grid into the home, but is also the gateway for a whole host of new Smart Home apps and services. AlertMe is OSGi-ready and can be powered by ProSyst mBS Smart Home on the Hub and ProSyst mPRM on the backend.

ASTRALS – ASTRALS will implement efficient A/V coding standards, adaptation and distribution solutions, which will enable a new beam of innovative Audio-Visual streaming products and services in existing houses. This will additionally boost the exploitation of existing technology investments and pave the way to novel revenue -generating audio-visual applications. ASTRALS will eventually provide citizens with the means to build new personalized, audio-visual user-centric services (entertainment, healthcare, e-learning, home surveillance), improving their quality of life, entertainment and safety.

Busch-Jäger TouchPanel – The Busch-Jäger Touch Panel combines the functions of a house control, a home infotainment centre and entertainment centre in one attractive masterpiece. With the Busch-ComfortTouch, you can operate or dim the lights, control your blinds, regulate the room temperature, play MP3 or video files, access email, surf the web or set the wake up alarm – everything even by remote control. Busch-ComfortTouch runs ProSyst mBS OSGi technology.

Cisco – The Cisco® Model TES301 IP Managed Services Home Gateway offers Service Providers the ability to deliver differentiated, revenue generating, managed services to their customers. In addition to offering an advanced set of features to support voice, data, and video services, the TES301 has been developed to enable multiple incremental services such as Home Security and Safety, Home Automation, Smart Metering, and Energy Control. TES301 runs ProSyst mBS Smart Home OSGi Service Platform.

ClareControls – The first home automation system managed from the cloud and run on a Mac, Clare Controls is a leading provider of video surveillance systems and automated controls for businesses and residences. Clare Controls’ flagship control automation product, ClareHome, streamlines the configuration, deployment and maintenance of powerful applications. It gives end users simple and unified control over the systems they employ for control, convenience, security and entertainment. They use simple graphical interfaces that they design and deploy themselves, on devices they already favor, like iPads and iPhones. ClareHome, ClareAssure, ClareVision run ProSyst mBS Smart Home and mPRM.

E2-Home – An extensive set of services for energy management, home automation, community services and others, deployed to 180 apartments in Stockholm in 2001, all based on Makewave’s OSGi technology. This was the world’s first commercial deployment of consumer oriented OSGi service platform-based services.

Hager – RaumComputer AG realizes the vision of the Computer Integrated Building (CIB). The automation software of RaumComputer uses the mBS Smart Home SDK. The Building Automation Product RaumComputer (RC) creates the technological base for Computer-Integrated Buildings. This product does not only break new grounds in respect of content, but also in respect of engineering: On the one hand the function spectrum of the building automation has been enhanced to an open, facility-management-oriented service platform. On the other hand, the building automation is mainly considered a software task, which is solved by using innovative data bank-, PC- and Internet techniques. The automation software integrates ProSyst’s OSGi-certified mBS used for the flexible dynamic adaptation of the room constellations on field level. The field level of the RC remains open for the integration of any device and bus-system – an invitation for all manufacturers to turn their products into ones that can interoperate with the RaumComputer. Control engines (User Interfaces) can be a PDA, a PC and mobile respective web-enabled devices, which can access the requested building services.

Ionics Plug Computer – The Ionics Stratus Plug computer provides PC-like performance to run network-based services and apps. It is a small, powerful computer. It plugs into the wall socket and an ethernet cable, and can run network-based services that normally require a dedicated personal computer. The plug uses low power and utilizes only a small fraction of the energy consumed by an always-on desktop computer or laptop. It can come with ProSyst mBS Smart Home pre-installed and act as a home gateway device or control point. mBS Smart Home provides a standardized and consistent infrastructure for services and apps, mBS Smart Home SDK helps to easily port and integrate existing services and apps.

Miele– Miele – Miele is one of the biggest white good manufacturers worldwide and renowned for its high quality appliances. Ongoing innovation is the guideline of the company’s dictum. Its white good solution networking Miele@home is OSGi-based, Smart Home/Smart Grid ready, and available on the market. ProSyst’s certified open and scalable mBS Smart Home SDK is used to provide the consumer with a secure, convenient and personalized residential monitoring and control solution which can be integrated into existing infrastructure. Via the “SmartStart” function on the display Miele@Home devices can be easily set to run when electricity rates are low. Miele is, among others, also a partner of Deutsche Telekom’s QIVICON Home Management Platform offering.

PLASTIC – PLASTIC will offer software engineering methods, tools and a supporting middleware to assist the development, execution and deployment of robust, dependable and adaptable software services over B3G networks. The core objective of the PLASTIC project is to enable the development and deployment of cost-effective application services, both in terms of development and usage costs.

TNO has developed a surveillance system, which keeps an eye on, for example, elderly residents in their own house, using intelligent sensors (a.o. cameras). The system collects the information from various sensors, analyses it and autonomously draws conclusions, which may result in triggering actions of emergency services. The system enables elderly to live longer in their own house. The residential gateway used in each house is built on Makewave’s OSGi distribution Knopflerfish.

TTNET– TTNET, a leading telecom operator in Turkey, launches a unique cloud-video-monitoring product with smart home features, based on ProSyst OSGi and remote device management technology. The customer gets a complete smart home system consisting of several devices like plugs, movement detectors, door/window sensors and sirens to equip his home individually. Features include pre buffering, recording, and push notification via SMS/Email, live stream, and high security standards. A product video can be found here.

Xanboo XG 1000 – Xanboo XG 1000 is an innovative service gateway based on ProSyst’sopen, modular, and scalable mBS Smart Home SDK, including the latest R4 certification by the OSGi Alliance. It provides 24/7 serviceability and is low-cost, plug and play and very user-friendly. It provides an intuitive user interface for scheduling automatic backups over local network and allows third party application providers to run their own applications when authorized. Xanboo XG 1000 can also be used with a GSM modem for wireless and mobile applications. The XG1000 has an optional built-in radio for 2-way communication with all XANBOO AFMII wireless devices, and also has support for Zwave, Insteon, Zigbee and RS232/485 devices. In addition to the service gateway Xanboo Central Servers offer fully equipped, scalable and reliable remote management services based on mBS Smart Home SDK.